1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for providing advertisements in web-based printing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing free or subsidized printing in exchange for advertising space on printed documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Remote printing of electronic documents is increasing as more computer users use their computing devices away from their homes and offices. Increased portability of computers, such as laptop computers, and other pervasive computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones that can access the Internet and other networks wirelessly, and other portable devices means that more users are using computing devices while traveling.
One device that is often difficult for users to bring with them while traveling is a printing device. While some portable printers are on the market, these printers are usually challenged by slower print speeds and poor document handling capabilities. For example, the user may have to feed individual sheets into the portable printer and wait several seconds, or even minutes, before receiving a printout. In addition, these portable printers are typically not as portable as portable computing devices. Portable printers are usually at least 9 to 12 inches long and several inches wide, making it difficult to carry the device.
Users of portable computing devices often identify electronic documents that they would like to print. Venues frequented by travelers, such as hotels, airports, and copy centers, often have business services available for a fee. The user can use the business service facilities including devices such as computers, monitors, printers, facsimile machines, and copiers and are generally charged an hourly fee. Users may be resistant to pay hourly fees for business equipment when all they need to do is simply print a document from their portable electronic device.
Some travel services, such as a hotel or copy service, allow users to print on the services' printer and pay a printing fee, often a certain amount per page. Again, for document drafts and other informal documents, users are often resistant to paying an often high rate for such casual printouts.
Advertisers increasingly use electronic forms of advertisement, such as banners on Internet web pages, to attract customers. Advertisers spend a great deal of money and effort in identifying target groups of Internet users. For example, a web site that deals with medical equipment and is frequented by medical doctors may host additional advertisements for other medical related goods and services. For instance, a provider of medical software may purchase advertising space on the medical equipment web site in an effort to attract new customers. A challenge with Internet based advertisements is that they only appear for a brief time to the user. Often when the user changes screens or visits another web page, they forget the information. If the user did not write the information down or store the advertiser information as a bookmark, they may not be able to remember how to contact the provider of the advertised goods or services.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to merge advertisers' objectives of identifying and targeting groups of users with users' need for printing documents while traveling.